Beachwood BBQ, Monkish, Strand, El Segundo and Eagle Rock immediately come to mind. In fact, I prefer those breweries over Golden Road. If we include Orange County we also get The Bruery, Bootlegger's and Smog City.

I think to those outside of SoCal, the OC is LA. Most people think of the area between Paso Robles and San Clemente as pretty much "LA". When I went down to the FW beer fest, everyone was like 'ah, another LA trip huh?'

Just like all my buddies when visiting Las Vegas, think I should just hop on down. Nevada is Las Vegas. Nevermind its over 400 miles away from where I live in Nevada. Dude, I'm in Vegas, its Nevada, like I'm next door.

Beachwood BBQ, Monkish, Strand, El Segundo and Eagle Rock immediately come to mind. In fact, I prefer those breweries over Golden Road. If we include Orange County we also get The Bruery, Bootlegger's and Smog City.

Beachwood BBQ, Monkish, Strand, El Segundo and Eagle Rock immediately come to mind. In fact, I prefer those breweries over Golden Road. If we include Orange County we also get The Bruery, Bootlegger's and Smog City.

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I have not tried Monkish or Strand. I have only tried El Segundo's Citra Pale, which I thought was good. Beachwood is good, ER is okay, I haven't had anything that wowed me.

Also, I took his article as a "Hey, look LA is starting to make good beer like the rest of the SoCal counties/areas" Which I think is accurate. Most of the places you guys named are very young and small operations, not even bottling. I am sure in 3-5 years LA will have a great brewery scene, but right now they are an infant stage and I think the author is right that Golden Road is a new standout amongst not that many options.

They make pretty good beer! I like their experimentation and the food is good. I've just had to bite bullet when I go there because their service sucks! I never like to complain on the Internet but I work in guest service and it's sad how the times I've been there and had friends go there we have all had bad experiences.

Back on subject the LA beer scene is getting awesome I can't wait for smog city to get a brew house of their own setup! Or have they? Are they still brewing at Tustin?

Agreed. I think Eagle Rock is putting out some pretty solid stuff, as well as Beachwood, Strand and El Segundo. Angel City just started putting out stuff (haven't had it yet) as well, plus Haven Brewing in Pasadena is making some solid beer as well.

Never really been impressed by Golden Road, although tried their Berliner last night with some Raspberry syrup and it was surprisingly tasty. The guy who runs Craftsman is pretty unpleasant to say the least, so I kind of refuse to buy anything they make.

Eagle Rock is fine. Golden Road is fine. El Segundo, Angel City and Strand are fine. Los Angeles has no great breweries. Monkish, Ladyface and Beachwood are good breweries that are a cut above in terms of creativity and execution, with plenty of room to grow.

The Bruery? Smog City? Bootleggers? Seriously, if we're including the OC (don't call it that) along with LA, let's go ahead and include Alpine, Russian River and Goose Island as a part of Los Angeles.

For those defending the article, he isn't just saying LA doesn't have many great breweries, or that it isn't as good as SD (duh). But with a quote like this: "Golden Road is a year-old brewery from L.A., a city that is to craft brewing what "The Innocence of Muslims" is to world cinema -- in other words, an embarrassment." This guy needs to fuck off, seriously. And I don't even live in LA.

Some of the LA area breweries mentioned have this in common - they've only been open a few years or less. IMO, it takes time for a brewery to mature, while creating and refining a good roster of beer styles.

Another commonality: the lack of a signature, bust-out brew that puts your brewery on the beer world map. For example, lLike Black Tuesday for The Bruery, Knuckle Sandwich/Bootleggers, Silva Stout/Green Flash, BA Speedway Stout/Alesmith, etc. How often do you see an LA area beer listed in ISO:FT?

Print media seems to be relying on shock value to generate interest moreso than substantive (much less objective) reporting more than other forms lately.

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And within print media, the San Diego UT is among the worst of the worst. The ownership have decided to be news makers rather than news reporters, and any semblance of objectivity or professional journalistic standards is pretty much gone at this point, with the exception of a couple columnists. Peter Rowe (the author of this piece) has generally been one of the better writers, not sure if he just has an axe to grind with LA or has bought into the paper's new mindset, but the UT isn't really worth paying attention to.

Peter Rowe (the author of this piece) has generally been one of the better writers, not sure if he just has an axe to grind with LA or has bought into the paper's new mindset, but the UT isn't really worth paying attention to.

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Of course Peter has an axe to grind with LA - he doesn't like all those LA douchebags that go to Alpine and grab all the beer for resale.

As a born & rasied Angelino (well SFV) The article is certainly brash, even insulting, but underneath that is basically the part that has some truth, that we have a long way to go, and being a city as old, and as large in the world as it is, it's a bit out of pace with a lot of other cities on beer, but we are improving.

I remember reading an interesting article about 2 years (wish I could recall who & where) back talking about how LA was for many decades, a club town. From disco clubs, rock clubs, alternative clubs, dance clubs, latin clubs, jazz clubs, etc. etc, and that as a result, the cities drinking culture was more around cocktails, martini's, margarita's, etc. as a result. That we were lacking, for decades, Pubs, & a pub culture, and with that of course, quality beer. The article went on to describe how over the last 15 to 10 years, but especially the last 5, that this has been shifting, & a Pub culture has finally been developing in LA ( though the club part will probably still be here forever)

Anyhow, I really agreed with that articles perspecitve, since most of the LA breweries mentioned in this thread have opened in the last 5 years or less, as well as most of the great craft beer bars now in LA as well. Over that same period of time, I've seen Bevmo's, Total Wines & More pop up, & liquor stores improving their craft beer stock during this same period.

We do have a ways to go, though the embarrasment remark is bullshit. I'm excited to see where will be in 5 to 10 years, am glad to be a part of it, and I'm proud to call LA home.